Shake your head when Bishop Richard Malone delivers his sermon about the poor at the Haiti Conference in Washington, D.C.

Bishop Malone spent $600,000 of church funds on his lavish living quarters. By shaking your head, you're letting Bishop Malone know that the same amount of money could be used to provide food, medicine and safe shelter for the earthquake victims in Haiti.


Bishop Richard Malone is co-chair of the "Haiti: One Table, Many Partners" Conference.

When Bishop Richard J. Malone talks about the poor in his homily at the Haiti Conference in Washington, D.C., let him know he's a hypocrite by shaking your head in disapproval as he speaks.

Time and time again, we have asked Bishop Malone to begin each meeting held under Church auspices, at the parish or diocesan level, no matter what their purpose, with the agenda item: "How shall what we are doing here affect, involve or enable the poor?"

It goes without saying that spending parishioners' donations to purchase a much too large, much too expensive home for the exclusive and private use of Bishop Malone is a waste of valuable funds that could otherwise be used to establish programs and services that would enable the poor and needy. 


During the same 2011 time period that Bishop Malone was making renovations and purchasing new furniture, draperies and carpets for his new home, he cut diocese funding to Catholic Charities of Maine by $135,000, almost 20% less than the previous year (in which diocese funding was reduced by 7%).

In the book The Poor are the Church, Rev. Joseph Wresenski argues that the Church has no existence, much less authenticity, apart from the poor. The poor are the church, he says, and we are fully in the Church only when we stand with the poorest. 


Rev. Wresenski calls us all to see poverty in a profoundly different way, not just as destitution or oppression but as social isolation, an isolation created by all of us to the degree that we live apart from the poor.

Bishop Richard J. Malone of Maine lives apart from the poor in a $600,000, 4 bedroom, 3,000 sq. ft. home in an exclusive Portland, Maine suburb. 

In June 2011, Malone bowed to public criticism by moving after seven years out of his $1.2 million, 7,000 sq. ft, 7 bedroom, 5 bath mansion in Portland. The property taxes alone amounted to $20,000, more than many Mainers earn in an entire year.

Malone somehow kept a straight face when he explained to parishioners that he was "downsizing" to a 3,000 sq. ft. home. Malone lives all by himself in his new home. 

However, when Malone was forced to use his own money, and not parishioners' money, to buy a home for himself and his best friend, Rev. Paul Miceli, they bought a small, single story, 840 sq. ft., 2 bedroom home on Cape Cod.

When Cardinal O'Malley downsized from his mansion in Boston, he moved into the Cathedral rectory in Boston. Malone could have done have done the same by moving into comfortable living space in the Cathedral rectory in Portland. 

For more information: Paul Kendrick, 207-838-1319

“Who is Bishop Richard Malone?"

In his role as head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland (Maine), Bishop Malone also serves as pastor of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception parish in Portland.

For the past nine years, the Cathedral parish's web site has highlighted the parish's partnership with the parishioners of the Cathedral Church in Cap-Haitien, Haiti.  According to the web site, members of the Portland Cathedral send clothing, books, school supplies, etc. to the parishioners of the Cathedral in Cap Haitien. 

Problem is, it's not true. Nothing has been sent to Haiti by Cathedral parishioners in eight years, ever since Bishop Malone became bishop of Maine and pastor of the Cathedral. Michael Sweatt of Portland, ME will be attending the Haiti Conference. 

Last week, Mike asked Bishop Malone for an accounting of everything that has been sent to Haiti from Cathedral parishioners since Malone became bishop. Malone responded by removing the information from the Cathedral parish web site. 

The Poor Are the Church: 

A Conversation with Fr. Joseph Wresinski, Founder of Fourth World Movement

Gilles Anouil
0 Reviews
Twenty-Third Publications, Apr 1, 2002 - 191 pages


Father Wresinski relates what he has learned from the poor, as well as his hopes and fears for the poor and for the Church. He traces the development of the Fourth World Movement, reflects on what it means to give priority to the poorest, and challenges readers to see poverty in a different way, not just as destitution or oppression but as a social isolation created by all of us. A serious, solid, and thought-provoking read.